LLASOS Marwil Llasos: “We don’t want to be the dragons we want to slay.” CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Lawyer Marwil Llasos, a political newbie and one of the three senatorial candidates of the Kapatiran Party, admits that they could not match the electoral machinery of traditional politicians.

“Ours is not a well-entrenched political party, we don’t even have political ads. We don’t have the money and we are nameless, so to speak,” Llasos told the INQUIRER in an interview.

Llasos, who has taken to Twitter and Facebook to get mass mileage, said the Kapatiran candidates are not inclined to resort to dancing and singing during the campaign as other candidates do.

“We will not do that because we don’t want to be the dragons that we want to slay,” he said.

“What boosts my morale is the ground swell of support from the youth, the students who are the ones very active in social networking,” he said.

Llasos said he is doing well in the debates and fora he has been invited to and he could well give Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago a run for her money as campus darling.

Citing an instance, the 37-year-old Llasos said he ranked No. 2 in the mock poll that followed a forum he recently attended at the University of the Philippines in Diliman.

“I got a good ranking although I had no hakot (hauled-in) crowd, unlike (Bayan Muna candidate) Teddy Casiño who brought with him supporters carrying tarpaulins,” he said.

He noted how the low recognition rate he had before the forum was reversed after he spoke to the audience.

Good chance

“Only three to five people recognized me before I addressed the crowd. But when I went out of the hall after my speech, students mobbed me, asking for autographs or their pictures taken with me,” he said.

“This only shows that if people could get to know me and hear me speak, I have a good chance of winning,” said Llasos, a native of Daraga, Albay.

“I knew I had won the crowd and this was later on proven by the mock poll,” he added.

In his blog, Llasos narrated that during the forum, he told the students what he knew were the real function of a Senator—legislation, investigations in aid of legislation and education on issues.

Crusade vs pork barrel

“Because of my (and Kapatiran Party’s) crusade against the pork barrel system, I blasted the congressmen’s interest in public contracts due to their PDAF (priority development assistance fund) that they should no longer be called kongresista (congressmen) but kontratista (contractors),” he said, adding that his remark elicited laughter and applause from the audience.

A senator gets a PDAF of about P200 million each year, an amount that makes up a substantial amount of congressional allocations that lawmakers receive each year.

Llasos said the PDAF or pork barrel was among the reasons that motivated him to run.

“But it motivated me in a different way,” he said. “I want PDAF and other discretionary funds abolished. These funds are the root of graft and corruption.”

‘We have a message’

“Why don’t we just have a comprehensive system in responding to the development needs of the people? Why don’t we just put the fund to the General Appropriations Act instead of discretionary? We have the barangay development council, for instance. They know better, we don’t need a congressman for that,” he said.

What sets him apart from traditional politicians or idealistic candidates like him?

“(Kapatiran candidates) are different because we have a message and that is what the people are going to buy,” said Llasos, who used to work as corporate lawyer for a multinational casino company and as executive assistant at the Department of Agrarian Reform. “What traditional politicians say are all motherhood statements, they’re all about themselves, their families, their achievement and the people are left out in the process.”

Llasos admitted that he was initially reluctant to run for public office.

But he changed his mind after being challenged by something fellow Kapatiran senatorial candidate, sociologist-environmentalist Rizalito David, told him in the process of convincing him to run.

“He (David) told me that a lot of people were pushing him to run, to fight, but when he returned to them the challenge to join him in seeking public office, they all disappeared. So that struck me,” he said.

Self-credibility

“The Bible says, ‘You will be measured in the same way you measure others.’ I felt that I’m using that measurement to others but when it was used against me … I don’t want to be weighed and found wanting,” he said.

“Self-credibility is very important to me,” Llasos, a commissioned lay preacher said. “It’s important that when I face people, I know what I say and walk the talk. So eventually I relented.”

He said he was commissioned a recognized preacher in 2006 by Bishop Antonio Tobias of Novaliches.

Apart from Church doctrines, Llasos said he also speaks about the social doctrines of the Church.

“(The issue) on environment may be a social or environmental issue but that is definitely a spiritual one, because it’s respect for God’s creation. Graft and corruption is a violation of the ‘Thou shall not steal’ commandment, isn’t it? Most of the things concerning the government has implication on morality,” he explained.”

Llasos said his life’s defining moment was when he passed the bar exams.

“I had no plan to be a lawyer but I became one. Initially, I also did not intend to run for the Senate. But for all you know, I may become a senator,” he said.

Llasos said his being religious stemmed from the influence of his grandmothers on both his parents’ side.

“They would rouse me from sleep early in the morning to pray in Latin,” he said.

Broken home

A product of a broken home, Llasos said that while he grew up in the care of his father’s family, he was single-handedly raised by his mother Marichu Nacor, a seamstress who used to work as an overseas Filipino worker.

His father, Wilson Llasos, was a witness in the Agrava Fact Finding Board, which investigated the Aquino-Galman double murder case in 1983.

A product of the public school system, Llasos, who finished cum laude with a degree in Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at the Bicol University, said that if he wins, he would push for the strengthening of state universities and colleges (SUCs).

“I want to strengthen the SUCs chiefly by giving them fiscal autonomy just like the privilege given to the University of the Philippines and Mindanao State University,” he said.

Although Llasos is a perceived Catholic candidate, he said he enjoys strong support from the Muslim community, including the Ulama Association of the Philippines.

“That’s the body of Muslim bishops endorsing me. There are local leaders in Mindanao who also pledged to support me,” he added.

He admitted that he had encountered people who questioned his intentions for running considering that he was not as popular as the veteran politicians.

Why are you running?

“Others would tell us, ‘You have no money, why are you running?’ If that’s our mindset, we already condemn our country that only the rich and moneyed can rule,” Llasos added. “I tell them, I am poor, but you are also poor so let’s help each other.”

He explained that Kapatiran candidates do not accept contributions from donors.

“It is the party that accepts contributions so that the individual candidate would be spared from a debt of gratitude to the campaign donors,” he said, stressing the need for transparency in campaign contributions.

Llasos also said that Kapatiran candidates enjoy the backing of Catholic lay organizations.

“We do not actively seek the support of the Catholic bishops but if they do endorse us, we welcome it,” he said.

In the 2010 elections, Kapatiran obtained the endorsement of several Catholic bishops and leaders of lay groups and other churches.

Llasos said Kapatiran’s platform and issues—the prohibition of political dynasties, abolition of the pork barrel system, legislated gun control, passage of the freedom of information bill, opposition to the reproductive health bill—have not changed.

He also believed that the defeat of the Catholic church on the issue of reproductive health (RH) law is the party’s gain.

“I think when RH law was passed, the Catholic church was really hurt. But the defeat or loss in the RH law is our gain, politically speaking, because somehow it galvanizes the opinion of devout Catholics to really fight it, to really engage in this election by voting for those who parallel their religious beliefs and that is us,” he said.

Winning is a bonus

But to win in the elections is only a bonus, Llasos said.

“Other candidates are hard-sell, they have to win at all cost. If I win, that would be just a bonus. My experience during the campaign matters more, this is very educative for me,” he said.

“We are engaged in a crusade, we are engaged in political education and no matter what will be the outcome of the election is already irrelevant. What is important is that seeds have been planted. The elections come and go, politicians come and go, but the principles remain. And if we don’t succeed in this election, somehow the future generation of Filipinos will learn from our experience.”

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Carlos_Iho

Good luck!

superpilipinas

TOP of MY LIST.

ABSOLUTELY. NO DOUBT.

HE is MOST DEFINITELY the KIND WHO CAN MAKE A MUCH BETTER PHILIPPINES.

From HIS HISTORY and BACKGROUND, I BELIEVE HIM.

It’s TIME to CHANGE for GOOD.

NO TO TEAM PNOY, UNA, Lakas, KAMPI, NPC, NP, etc., ALL THOSE ARE TRAPOS, POLITICAL DYNASTIES, INCOMPETENT SHOWBIZ PERSONALITIES. They block FOI to remain in power or waste or steal our taxpayer money or to enrich themselves and their friends and relatives.

Di po sila trapo Sir at talagang may conviction sila for Social change.

Pok2

I met him in San Marcelino Zambales yesteray and you will see their sincerity unlike others who will look at you in the eye and tell a lies.

Maria Retina Sarmiento

matagal ko nang na meet si atty. and mabait talaga, maka Dios at may prinsipyo. I will pray to God he wins

Karabukov

Internet campaigning via facebook, emails, youtube, twitter, google-friendly blogs and other web-based reach-out may yet be the political equalizer we’ve been hoping for all these years.

Unknown authors can now self-publish, unknown composers and performers can now be seen and heard, unknown voices can now speak to all.

Why not heretofore unknown leaders who have vision, ideas and ideals that resonate with the people?

Why not, indeed.

Go for it!

$14334231

i tend to believe that your chances in winning is very slim…..but be that as it may…..here’s one vote for you!!!!…..many might say, “sayang lang ang boto mo, di naman ‘yan mananalo….but voting is almost akin to gambling….you win some, you lose some…..may your tribe increase!!!!

http://www.facebook.com/beng.atibo.3 Beng Atibo

List down the senatoriables who will renounce their pork barrels if elected. I will vote for them!!!
It is easy to say they will abolish the pork barrel when elected but would soon be forgotten when they sit in the senate. Saludo ako kay Ping Lacson and Joker Arroyo who have not used their pork barrels. If they could serve the people without pork barrels, so should the others.

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_W7TPARCYJFCSA3PBQAM3MVZO3E kurakut

THE LIKES OF PING ANG JOKER IS HARD, VERY HARD TO COME BY, MUCH MORE ASKING FOR A LIST OR SLATE. HOWEVER, LET’S RALLY FOR THIS CAUSE.

Vote for the man who promises least; he’ll be the least disappointing.
— Bernard M. Baruch

http://twitter.com/wadjitzain coty

The political machine triumphs because it is a united minority acting against a divided majority.
— Will Durant

Demy Angeles

If you have 1000 devout supporters who will campaign for you in the net and each of this 1000 will win or convince 100 supporters and these 100 will do the same and so forth and so on, WOW, you will win

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5STEU22AD7YRHQSB6RE56ZDSYA J

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge where there is no river.- Nikita Khrushchev

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5STEU22AD7YRHQSB6RE56ZDSYA J

More than 80% of the voters of this country believe in popularity of the candidate. They don’t think much who and what is the background of that guy is. Those 80%, whether you like or not are the king-makers and if they will not able to know you by any means and even how much you want to win to help change this country, you will see yourself as candidate again comes next election.

I would drop the liaryer part and claim you are a janitor that way you will have more creditability as the Dept of Jokes ( DOJ ) and judiciary are as good as a chocolate tea pot and run by people how can not arrange a two car parade.
good luck if you do.

Kapatiran should pressure all these survey managers to poll the young varsity voters if only to find out who among the senators are winning the hearts and minds of the educated young voters. I suspect there’s a silent conspiracy to ignore the voice of the “Hope of the Fatherland”.